Setting the stage

People behind the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival explain why they love the Bard

BY BILL BEESON

One Christmas my parents gave me a present I'd been pestering them about for over two years. It was "The Collected Works of William Shakespeare," with illustrations by Rockwell Kent. Soon afterward, I was cast as Young Macduff in the Pittsburgh Playhouse's very modern production of "Macbeth." The Murderer called me "Young fry of treachery!," shot me twice and I fell backwards down a flight of steps–and helplessly, hopelessly in love with Shakespeare for life.

To honor Shakespeare, and to give insight into The Central Coast Shakespeare Festival that so many people have grown to love, I decided to find out what brought the people involved in the festival together, what they gain, and what they think about the Bard.

My unquenchable passion is shared by the three women who head up CCSF–executive director Julie Galvin, artistic director Zoe Saba, and production manager Carolyn Swanson. The Festival is now in its eleventh year. For four of those, this trio has kept it alive.

This means they choose repertoire (two plays a summer), hire directors, interview technicians, arrange actors' auditions, do public relations and advertising, book the venue, balance the books, sew costumes, paint scenery, work lights and sound, now and then act–all while holding down real 9-to-5 jobs.

"All of us can see ourselves in [Shakespeare]," said Julie Galvin. "It's like Princess Diana and Mother Theresa, who died the same week. There was this tremendous outpouring of grief for Diana, but nothing as vast for Mother Theresa. A psychologist said it was because people saw themselves in Diana. She was fallible, more recognizable. Same thing goes for Shakespeare." Of course, Galvin isn’t the only one in the trio who feel this way.

"We're always aware that these are flesh and blood characters, capable of error," Saba agreeed, "I love it that there's great drama and great poetry, too."

Swanson added, "I remember reading ‘Romeo’ for the first time, in ninth grade. Wow! I was dazzled. It made my whole world a lot bigger than I ever thought it was."

The trio didn’t just stuble into their positions, however. Each was active with this group long before.

"In 1996, we'd been performing at the Leaning Pine Arboretum at Cal Poly–’Lear’ and ‘Midsummer,’" said Saba. "And at the end of the season, it was announced that the festival would be dissolving."

Swanson said, "We were all sitting around what's now the Mission Grill, saying, ‘No way! We can't let this happen!’"

Saba said it was especially sad for the actors. "Understand, too, that we were the only enterprise of its kind in California. Every summer people came from all over the state to see us," she said.

So the group had lots of meetings, got a lawyer and their non-profit papers, and the three of them became the board. Then, they applied for and received a grant from the Promotional Coordinating Committee. The next season they presented "As You Like It" at the Arboretum (with Galvin as Rosalind).

Saba said, "It was our best season, our most successful. But then Cal Poly didn't want us using the Arboretum anymore. So we began leasing City Playhouse from Little Theatre. We've been playing there since 1998. But now we want to set down roots in a place of our own."

Director Billy Houck’s roots pull nutrients from many different soils. His incurable affection for the Bard earned him a summer's fellowship at Stratford-on-Avon, immersing himself in classes by day, Royal Shakespeare Company performances by night. He was one of only 13 teachers nationwide to be so honored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

To quote the CCSF program: "Billy Houck has been either acting, directing, designing, dramaturging (is that a word?), producing, writing, or reviewing plays constantly since he was 15 years-old." "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is his third CCSF directing stint.

"I discovered Shakespeare when I was taken to Peter Brook's production of ‘Midsummer-Night's Dream’ when I was in high school," said Houck. "It was like a circus, very athletic. Up to that moment, I thought Shakespeare was something like ‘Hello, Dolly!’ But I never forgot it."

When he began teaching drama at Arroyo Grande High School, he tried producing his plays. The kids couldn't get enough of him. Now Houck has to do one or two every year at Eagle Theatre. To date, they've done 21.

The play he’s directing for CCSF this season, "Two Gentleman of Verona," afforded him a way to present Shakespeare to new audiences. "It was written when Shakespeare was younger," he said, "His character analysis wasn't as keen as it got later on, with ‘Hamlet.’ So setting it in the present, which we are, helps make it real or plausible. The audience recognizes the characters immediately. They're portrayed as contemporary symbols they understand."

Houck isn’t the only big gun directing at the festival. Actress and director Cindy Totten joins the festival for her third season. "Hamlet" marks her second directing stint. Previously, she was the associate professor of Theatre at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Sunshine State is, indeed, a long way from San Luis Obispo. According to her, however, the events that brought her to the Central Coast were quite simple.

"I met Michael Hofacre, who used to direct [on the Central Coast], at a Shakespeare conference in Nebraska," said Totten. "He invited me, then Zoe invited me, then I came. The rest is history."

According to Totten, the real benefit of the festival is the experience for those involved. She said, "The actors who work with this festival come away with a great sense of accomplishment, having been given the opportunity to perform two different shows in rotating repertory. The rigors of the rehearsal process, the high expectations and level of commitment necessary to ‘this enterprise of great pith and moment’ allow the artists to explore strengths and talents perhaps they didn't know they had.

Actors aren’t the only people who gain from it, however. She added, "The experience stretches the director, too."

A few years ago, the world took a turn for the better when a great modern playwright named Tom Stoppard wrote the script for a movie called "Shakespeare in Love." It was about Shakespeare being alive and tremulous and young and just beginning to write all those wonderful words. In one incandescent moment, Stoppard legitimized our passion and made Shakespeare more popular than he'd ever been before, possibly.

We're so lucky. We have our own Shakespeare here–a wonderful festival celebrating the greatest playwright ever. Now we've got to help find it a place to grow up, spread its wings and fly. Æ

Bill Beeson is currently working on his one-man production of "As You LIke It: The Musical."